Microsoft Lumia 530 Windows Phone 8.1 Budget Smartphone Officially Launched: Poses Intense Competition to Moto G, Moto E and Android One Devices

Microsoft has made official the budget Windows Phone 8.1 Lumia 530, to succeed the popular Lumia 520. The USP of Lumia 530, like its predecessor, is 'affordability'. With a price tag of €84 (£67 approximately), Lumia 530 easily qualifies as one of the cheapest Windows Phone 8.1 devices.

Between the launch of Lumia 520 and 530, Nokia (now Microsoft) had launched another budget low-end smartphone called the Lumia 525, but the latest Lumia is widely believed to be the 'real successor' to the popular Lumia 520.

Microsoft has designed Lumia 530 to be a low-end device (technical specification wise), since the Lumia 530 is touted as the 'most affordable' in the Lumia series and with the device running Windows Phone 8.1 straight out of the box, various recent Android devices targeting the low-end smartphone markets could come under intense competition.

Prominent Android devices include, Moto G, Moto E and the yet-to-be-released Android One smartphones.

Technical specification wise, Lumia 530 incorporates a 4in FWVGA LCD display, and a 5MP rear camera similar to its predecessor.

The smartphone is driven by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, along with a 512MB RAM. The device comes with 4GB of internal storage, and provides a single-SIM card slot (dual-SIM variants expected to be released soon).

Users purchasing Lumia 530 have the option to upgrade the internal storage up to 32GB via microSD card. The smartphone also offers its users 15GB of free cloud storage.

Microsoft claims that the Lumia 530 will provide a maximum talk-time of up to 10 hours on 3G networks, and nearly 14 hours on 2G carriers.

Being a low-end device, Lumia 530 has a modest 1430 mAh battery, which is removable.

However, users should find the aspect of Windows Phone 8.1 being offered in a sub $150 phone, interesting.

For those of you who prefer to indulge themselves in gaming at a decent level, the Lumia 530 disappoints, considering the fact that the device only offers 512MB RAM, which is in no way sufficient to run high-end games.

Also, users of the smartphone should expect a lag in performance of Windows Phone 8.1 considering the fact that the OS works well with at least a 1GB/2GB RAM.

However, Lumia 530 should be attractive, considering its Windows Phone 8.1 platform, and the affordability factor. Also, with recent trends suggesting people's eagerness to buy Windows Phone devices, it should come as no surprise if the Lumia 530 manages to outdo its predecessor (Lumia 520), in terms of sales.

The Lumia 530 could also fall into the value-for-money segment after its official release especially in countries like the US, UK and India. With people in the UK seemingly assigning top-most priority to buy value for money gadgets (trend evident after last quarter's Moto G sales) over high-end devices, the Lumia 530 could pose an intense competition to the Moto G in the United Kingdom.

According to Microsoft, Lumia 530 will be available for purchase from August, in countries like the US and UK, followed by a global roll-out later in the year.

"We are moving quickly to help more people experience the uncompromised Lumia technologies, third party apps, and Microsoft services that we deliver on our flagship products," said Jo Harlow, corporate vice president of Microsoft Devices Group.

Check the video below for a demo of Microsoft Lumia 530: